British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned yesterday that the EU must modernize or risk failure as an economic bloc and as a social model.
Setting out an agenda for his country's six-month EU presidency at the European Parliament, which begins July 1, Blair also urged the 25-member bloc to continue expansion, warning that to shut its doors would give rise to new nationalism and xenophobia.
"If Europe defaulted to euroskepticism ... then we risk failure, and failure on a grand strategic scale. Only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism and its support amongst people," he said.
A summit of EU leaders ended in acrimony a week ago, with no agreement on a budget for 2007-2013, and no guarantee that the bloc's first constitution will ever be ratified. Other EU nations have blamed Britain for the collapse of the summit, accusing it of unwillingness to accept a compromise that would permit a deal on future funding.
"The debate over Europe should not be conducted by trading insults or in terms of personality," Blair said. "It should be an open and frank exchange of ideas."
Some of Blair's critics heckled him when he described himself as a "passionate pro-European."
But he won applause when he addressed fears that Britain was interested in changing the EU to a mere free-trade zone, saying he believed in a Europe with a strong social dimension.
"I believe in Europe as a political project. I would never accept Europe that was simply an economic market," he said. "This is a union of values, of solidarity between nations and people, of not just a social market in which we trade but a common political space in which we live as citizens."
Blair said the 25-nation bloc needed a new blueprint with "urgent" reforms if Europe was to grow and meet the needs of its citizens and compete with other top economic powerhouses like the US, China and India. He said Europe's welfare system was outdated and needed to be overhauled.
"Tell me what type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe, productivity rates falling behind those of the United States; that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe," said Blair. "Of the top 20 universities in the world today, only two are now in Europe."
"Investment in knowledge in skills in active labor policies ... in higher education, in urban regeneration in help for small businesses -- this is modern social policy, not regulation and job protection," said Blair. There was a disconnection, he said, between citizens and their political leaders about where the EU should be going and what it was doing.
"It is a crisis of political leadership," he said, pointing to the recent rejection of the EU's constitution in France and the Netherlands three weeks ago.
"As ever I'm afraid the people are ahead of the politicians," said Blair. "The issue is not about the idea of the EU, it is about modernization."
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